I'm almost done remodeling the Peir and Beam house I bought a couple months ago and need ideas for a skirt. I of course want it to look nice but want it cheap. It's roughly 1000 sqft floor plan so whatever that is in perimeter (will measure soon).

Any and all ideas welcomed!

99% of the P&B houses in my neighborhood have lattice.

This house had lattice and it was ugly.

I'm thinking hardi plank painted to the same color. Would be rot resistant.

My brother used faux rock panels. They actually have some really nice ones

If you're in a hot/humid climate, you want to make sure there's still plenty air flow underneath. They make lattice that is a square pattern which I think looks much nicer than the traditional diagonal stuff.

If it's hot and truly humid you want to encapsulate the crawlspace. Bringing air in to an area that's cooler than the dew point = condensation, not drying.

So then why are most of the pier and beam houses in Houston not encapsulated?

If the home is in the floodplain, you'll void your insurance policy by encapsulating it. Be careful.

Our 1920 home (been told it's probably more like 1905-1910) has the original wood siding all the way to ground. Other homes in our area either have the faux stone metal skirt and others have real stone.

Here's our lattice:

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So then why are most of the pier and beam houses in Houston not encapsulated?

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Lots of them aren't here in Charleston either. The rot if generally discovered someone later (30-60 years).

I really like that lattice. We may have a winner!

A trick in Houston is getting the piers (I assume they're cinder block) to be pretty with lattice interspersed between them. In our 1872 house, we framed the lattice measured perfectly to fit between the piers (ours were block, I wish they had been brick!). So you had these little rigid panels that you just screwed on to the house. Framing them really makes a difference and looks way better than just a continuous band of wavy plastic Hone Depot lattice.

I used LP SmartSide panels. The home appraisal did note that there's supposed to be x amount of ventilation per x number of feet.

Most of the moisture is going to come up from the ground. The air movement is to dry that out.